Since HIV became an epidemiological concern in the early 1980's, the need to safely dispose sharp medical instruments while preventing injuries and the transmission of blood borne viral disease (Hepatitis B, C and HIV) to health care workers has become a serious health issue. In order to limit the number of injuries to health care workers, the Center for Disease Control recommends that disposable syringes with needles, scalpel blades, and other sharp items capable of causing injury should be placed intact into puncture resistant containers located as close as is practical to the area in which they were used. In current practice it is not practical to have disposal containers for contaminated sharps in every room where patients are treated or when patients are treated outside of a hospital, such as by a paramedic. Consequently, many injuries occur while a health care worker is trying to cap or transport sharp instruments from the patient's bedside to a disposal device, which is often located across the room or in another room.
A wide variety of containers for the disposal of sharp instruments are known in the art (WO 95/25,331 A1; WO 03/096,921 A2; U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,828,107; 5,076,429; 5,097,950; 5,145,063; 5,603,404; 5,791,471; and 6,250,465). Presently known containers are typically too large to be used at a patient's bedside or are designed to be mounted on a solid surface such as a wall. These containers are also typically designed to be used in a vertical orientation, i.e. they are tall relative to their length and width, so that a hypodermic needle, or other sharp instrument, inserted in the top of the container falls to the bottom due to gravity. Such containers are easily tipped over, which additionally makes them unsuitable for bedside disposal of sharp instruments.
What is needed is an easy-to-use, compact and portable disposal device for contaminated sharps that can be used by health care workers where patients are treated. It is believed that using a portable disposal device will prevent recapping and transport injuries since disposal will take place at the bedside or wherever the sharp instrument is used.